Looking for a cool Linux Topic to do a presentation on.

[dr_duff]

I am going to college and I am taking a class called "Linux as a server". I have to give a 20-30 minutes presentation on a Linux topic. I am looking for a topic that a class of IT people would find interesting. I am to new to Linux to find something that would be neat. I am sure whatever the topic will be I will learn alot from.

Do any of you have a good idea on what an interesting topic might be. I am not looking for something supper geeky either.

Chris

[simon]

if your classmates mostly come from a windows background then it could be interesting and useful to discuss free software, the GPL and so on. the history and politics are really interesting, and it's an issue that will affect them, especially if they're developers. in my experience quite a few windows IT people don't even understand the *difference* between free software and freeware, let alone the legal and social issues.

however if that's "too political" for your tastes, then maybe you could review the various filesystems for them? ext2/3/4, xfs, reiser and so on. they have strengths and weaknesses that could be discussed in relation to a gnu/linux server.

if by "neat" you mean cool/exciting rather than useful/interesting, maybe do your presentation on linux gaming? that would be a good excuse to spend half an hour blowing things up on a huge screen.

[gruven]

Since the class is Linux as a server, you could always do a presentation on Samba and how to make it a domain controller for Windows machines and how to make it a file sharing box and the technologies involved. That would interest both Windows people and Linux people alike.

If the class isn't full of Windows people, then filesystems or a topic on various corporations and how they use linux internally would be good.

[drl]

Hi.

Every *nix box is a server.

I like the big picture to start with. I have often placed a diagram like Figure 1-1 from Unix Power Tools, Third Edition - Google Preview - O'Reilly Media on the board, and then talked about the interactions of the pieces of *nix.

This is particularly effective if you can draw the blocks on a whiteboard, and then fill in the connections as you talk about it.

Best wishes ... cheers, drl

[twoHats]

Teh /proc filesystem might be interesting to many...